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EDITORIAL: Are voters ready for more change?

As Detroit's latest political corruption case ended in mistrial last week for political consultant Sam Riddle, attention turns now to the March 10 sentencing of his former boss, ex-Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers.
In contrast to Riddle, Conyers has remained remarkably quiet since her guilty plea on federal bribery charges.
Thankfully, she is off the Detroit council, and Detroit voters seem to be favoring candidates who promise not to embarrass the city by their behavior — corrupt or just plain stupid.
But could Monica Conyers' legal troubles lead to a serious primary challenge in August against her husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers?
The popular, iconic Detroit Democrat is a civil rights legend whose 40-plus year tenure in Congress is exceeded only by his congressional neighbor, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn.
No one — including federal prosecutors — has suggested he was aware of his wife's financial dealings. But he — or his Washington staff — may have been manipulated to support one of her side deals.
Months ago, Riddle told the Detroit Free Press that in early 2007 he paid Monica Conyers half of the $20,000 in consulting fees he received from businessman Jim Papas.
The payments were followed in July 2007 by a letter John Conyers wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency supporting Papas' quest to reopen a controversial deep-well injection site in Romulus in which retiree pension funds had invested.
Were the two events related? Until that letter, Conyers, whose 14th District includes seven Downriver communities, had vigorously opposed the liquid waste operation.
Conyers last year defended his change of heart to the Free Press, saying that the investments by the Detroit police and firefighters pension funds persuaded him to lobby the EPA on Papas' behalf.
But his memory on the subject has grown hazy — at least in public.
In December, at a luncheon meeting of the Southern Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, Conyers was asked by a member of the audience: How was it that you changed your mind on the Romulus deep-well injection issue?
Conyers did not answer the question directly, people who attended the lunch said. Instead, he asked his former district manager, seated in the audience, to field the question for him.
That wasn't lost on the audience. And it may not be lost on Downriver voters in August.